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| International |
| Protestors flood Arab, Islamic Capitals, Slam U.S. War Plans |
| 2003-01-18 |
| IslamOnline & News Agencies As hundreds of thousands of anti-war activists were gearing up for massive demonstrations across the globe Saturday, January 18, angry demonstrators flooded the streets of Arab and Islamic capitals Friday, January 17, to protest the U.S. war rhetoric and military build-up in the Gulf. Oh, dear! It's the Arab Street! Around 3,000 people took to the streets of the Bahraini capital Manama to protest a looming U.S.-led war on Iraq and demonstrate opposition to U.S. military bases in the region. "The American is a colonizer who has come to cause destruction!", "From Baghdad to Bahrain, one people and not two, from Baghdad to Ras al-Roman, everyone against the Americans!" "Arabland ÃŒber alles!" The protestors chanted, in reference to the Ras al-Roman mosque in east Manama where the protest was staged after weekly Muslim prayers. "No U.S. bases in Muslim countries!" The demonstrators thundered, waving Bahraini, Iraqi and Palestinian flags. Oh, how thrilling! Lawmakers, leaders of political groupings and human rights advocates led the protest. "This demonstration is a message of protest against the policy of the United States, which seeks to exercise its domination over the world," said Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the main Shiite Muslim grouping, the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA). "We also want to express our opposition to the use of U.S. bases in our country in a strike on Iraq," Sheikh Ali said. "We like Iraq the way it is. We don't have to live there, and most of us don't even know anybody who does. Leave it alone." The protestors, an American woman among them, walked two kilometers from the mosque to the U.N. headquarters in Manama before dispersing without incident. An American woman? Was she naked? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |